


Undercover

by inkand_paper (Fabuest)



Category: Transformers Generation One
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-04
Updated: 2012-05-04
Packaged: 2017-11-04 20:01:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/397673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fabuest/pseuds/inkand_paper
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Meister receives a request for pickup from one of his field agents.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Undercover

Meister frowned when he received a sudden location ping from one of his agents, a request for pickup piggybacking on the short transmission using an old, almost-forgotten encryption key. The ping was several vorns past due, long enough for Meister to have given up the agent as lost to the cause. He'd left the mech in place anyway; he was useful where he was, a well-known and predictable variable to plan around. Hearing from him now, suddenly, was surprising, but not unwelcome. He'd be glad to bring his mech back into the fold.  
  
Making his excuses, he parted with his current company and sped away from the base toward the pickup coordinates. It occurred to him, briefly, that this might be a set up, but there had been no indication that his agent's cover had been compromised at any point during or after the long operation, and he wasn't the sort to orchestrate a betrayal of his own. No, Meister was sure that this call was legitimate, and he was strangely excited by the prospect.  
  
It only took him a little over a cycle to reach the pickup point, and he pulled up short and transformed thirty mechanometers out from the exact coordinates of the ping. His field extended around him in a passive scan, and he picked up his agent's signal a short, cautious distance from the ping coordinates. They were alone.  
  
"Meister?" his mech called, quiet, obviously having reached the same conclusion from his own scans, and stepping out from his hidden position among the rubble of what used to be a thriving transport hub.  
  
Meister grinned and revealed himself, looking his mech up and down. "Good ta see ya, Agent," he greeted.  
  
His mech's optics widened, and his field flared in surprise. "You?"  
  
Chuckling, Meister sauntered forward, not stopping until he was well within his mech's personal space. "Were ya expectin' someone else?"  
  
This close, he could feel the uncertainty, the confusion in his mech's energy field. "I... do not know what I was expecting," the agent confessed. "I discovered a discrepancy, one which I felt required investigation."  
  
Meister did not have to feign his moue of disappointment. "Ya don' remember," he said. "The ping was a fluke."  
  
"I don't understand your meaning," his mech hedged. "The ping I sent was purposeful."  
  
"I see." Meister looked up at him, visor flashing. "You're investigatin' yer discrepancy. I can help with that." He opened a small panel in his wrist and unspooled a thin hacking cable. "Ya trust me?"  
  
His mech hesitated, but only a few kliks passed before the soft hiss of a retracting port cover sounded, and Meister plugged himself into the newly exposed thoracic port. He didn't wait for the taller mech's firewalls to drop, just entered a group of overrides that granted him access to the systems he needed. It was impossible to mistake the shock that flooded the connection.  
  
"How...?"  
  
"I got overrides for all my agents. Nobody goes in the field without 'em."  
  
"But I'm not..." His mech trailed off when Meister entered a final authorisation code, unlocking a section of the agent's processor that he wouldn't even have been aware existed, nevermind that he didn't have access to it. Meister could feel it as memories cascaded into the agent's cache, could feel the sudden understanding, the continued shock.  
  
"Sir," his mech said. It felt good to finally be acknowledged as the superior officer again.  
  
"How do ya feel, Prowl?" He pulled out of his mech's processor, then unplugged himself and stepped back, smirking, to watch the subtle play of emotions over the white faceplates.  
  
"All this time?" Prowl whispered, and the look in his optics was stricken, not the response Meister had been hoping for. "Jazz, I... what have I done?"  
  
"Your job," Meister replied with a shrug.  
  
"No," Prowl protested, quietly. "No, I'm not a Decepticon."  
  
"It's a real shame ya feel that way, Prowl." He wasn't lying; he genuinely liked Prowl, and Meister spared a moment to wish it hadn't come to this. It happened to the best of operatives, sometimes, gaining sympathy while working undercover, and Prowl had never been the best of operatives. He'd been just soft enough to make him the perfect choice for infiltrating the Autobots, a task he had performed well and efficiently with his memories of joining the Decepticons and working under Meister locked away, but it was clear now that his allegiance had shifted permanently. Now that he remembered, well... "A real shame."  
  
"Jazz?" Prowl took a fearful step back, optics locked on Meister's visor. That was a mistake; he should have been watching Meister's hands. No, Prowl had never been the best of operatives. The blade sliced through his armor and punctured his spark chamber before he even registered that Meister had moved, and his field flared one last time in shock, in pain, in betrayal, as Meister twisted the knife and pushed it deeper.  
  
"I'll miss ya, Prowl."

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt Jazz/Prowl - undercover at ultharkitty's [Transformers any-continuity comment fic and art party](http://ultharkitty.dreamwidth.org/32016.html), 2012 edition. I'm not sure why my mind went so dark with it, but there you go.


End file.
